Ex-communist Europe

Putin's perks

Nice work

GUESSING at the supposed—and secret—personal wealth of President Vladimir Putin is a favourite pastime for Russia-watchers, with much talk (and few facts) about opaque beneficiary companies, Swiss bank accounts, and intermediary oligarchs. In 2007, as Mr Putin’s second term was coming to a close and talk of succession swirled in Moscow, a rumour-monger called Stanislav Belkovsky said (without citing sources) that the Russian leader's covert holdings in some of Russia’s largest energy and trading firms amounted to $40 billion.

But a new report (pdf, in Russian) has taken a simpler approach. Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader who was a deputy prime minister in the Yeltsin era, and Leonid Martynuk, a journalist and activist, have scrutinised the palaces, jets, yachts, and watches that Mr Putin uses in the course of his duties. Mr Putin clings to power, they write, in part because he is loath to part with the “atmosphere of wealth and luxury” to which he has become accustomed. Why bother with private bank accounts when you have public funds at your disposal, they ask.

The report is titled “The Life of a Galley Slave”, in ironic reference to a remark by Mr Putin to reporters in 2008, when he claimed: “I have worked like a galley slave throughout these eight years, morning till night.” But the lifestyle presented in the report hardly recalls that of a captive chained to his oar. The president has 20 residences, from the Constantine Palace outside St Petersburg, a Tsarist-era estate restored in 2003 for tens of million of dollars, to the Dolgiye Borodi residence on Lake Valdai in northwest Russia. In 2009 Mr Putin is widely believed to have hosted Bjorn Again (a band that plays songs by the Swedish group Abba) for a personal concert there. His fleet of planes includes a Russian-made Ilyushin with a $75,000 toilet and ornamentation crafted by artisans from the monastery town of Sergiyev Posad. Systematic surveys of the presidential wrist reveal a watch collection worth more than $680,000, the authors reckon. Of the four yachts in Mr Putin’s collection, the authors allege, one was a gift from Russian businessmen. All of this adds up, the report’s authors say, to a lifestyle worthy of a “Persian Gulf monarch or a flamboyant oligarch.”

All of the report’s photographs and figures come from public sources. But the combined effect is dizzying. The Kremlin has dismissed the charges, with a spokesman refusing to comment on what he called “nonsense.” The report also does not mention that many of the properties it lists as presidential residencies serve other functions, including money-making ones, when he is not staying there.

Russian public opinion has mixed views about official corruption. A recent poll (link in Russian) by the Levada Center showed that over Mr Putin’s time in office, the number of respondents who think that bureaucrats act in their own corrupt self-interest grew from just 3% in 1999 to 29% in 2012. Yet research by Mikhail Dmitriev, whose focus-group data predicted the rise of middle-class discontent last winter, many Russians are cynical and inured to sleaze in public life. They see corruption as an unavoidable evil under any governing structure, and direct their ire to other targets, such as bad infrastructure or inadequate schools. In a much-discussed report (pdf, in Russian) in May Mr Dmitriev wrote that although people find corruption “irritating” they do not “see their own obvious self-interest in its liquidation.”

A man in the city of Dzerzhinsk (near Nizhny Novgorod in central Russia) told Mr Dmitriev’s researchers that corruption is a “scourge,” but how can one speak about such a “global battle,” he said, “when it’s impossible to drive on the roads, everything falls apart, and nothing is being done in town?” Perhaps he should visit Mr Putin's summer villa in Sochi to see what Russian tax roubles can buy. Or even the mysterious palace on the Black Sea, built for an unknown client, with money from an unknown source, that some believe is Mr Putin's 21st home.

Economically: riding an oil-boom is about as hard as signing the backs of the checks it generates. Any idiot in office could have managed that. Diversifying beyond oil is however difficult, and something Russia still struggles with, especially when it scares away foreign direct investment.

Strategically: lavishing (oil) money on the military, attacking tiny Georgia, and pointing a still massive if slightly aged and decrepit nuclear arsenal at people and generally acting like a Soviet-super power even if you're not. If that counts as strategy.

Spiritually: You mean either with religion, which i don't even have to search online to guess is on the fall in Russia, or nationalism, which for-sure I'll give you. Russians seem to like Putin for making them feel like their country is important and has influence like those good ol' soviet days. Lots of nukes and a seat on the UN security counsel definitely makes you feel like the Superpower Russia used to be.

Ah yes, Nemtsov, one of the biggest thieves during the Yeltsin Era puts forward his own "J'Accuse!"

Even if his report were true, it'd still be worth every penny in light of how Putin's leadership has turned the country around economically, strategically, and spiritually.

The Western press used to try really hard to promote the idea that liberal democratic parties like Yabloko were actually popular in Russia when they aren't at all. Then they tried to create the image of popularity with types like Kasparov who aren't at all popular. Then they sunk even lower with Pussy Riot. And now they are all reporting that Putin has amassed staggering personal wealth.

Putin is raising the retirement age in Russia to 70 ! This is real progress as it will allow many top Kremlin 'apparatchiks' to accumulate more bribes during their 'sevice'. It will also keep Putin in office till he is 70 years old. It's a long way to go...

Putin has always lived in unusual wealth. As a child, his family was far more wealthy than those surrounding them. They had electric appliances in the Soviet era where a consistent food supply was uncommon. When Putin went to university, his family won the lottery, and he became perhaps the only student at Leningrad State University to own a car. Was this more than luck? Probably. His father had military ties, and Putin was intent on spy work from a very young age.
We will never know the truth, because his whole life has been shrouded in lies, and the history rewritten.
Today, he is a dictator. As with those in the middle east, there is no separation between public and personal wealth.
I suggest reading the book "Man Without a Face" to learn more about Putin.

While the Levada Centre poll highlights a number of issues related to government's performance over a decade or so, none of them directly relates to Putin as president of the RF. The poll attempts to capture growing dissatisfaction among Russian respondents with such broad issues as that the government "did not cope with the increase in prices, falling incomes", "did not provide work", " Acted primarily in its own interest", "does not care about social protection of the population", "cannot deal with the problems in the economy", etc. All of which is, of course, true and has been repeatedly highlighted in last year's presidential campaign. One needs only to take another look at the presidential election results to see that the electorate's dissatisfaction with Putin's record, both as the president and as the prime-minister, did not translate into a confidence vote for any one of his political opponents. In Russia nobody is trusted, period.
Corruption was widespread under the Soviet rule, continued over Yeltsin's transitional years, and has been perfected and magnified during Putin's decade. The cream of the Russian ruling class has been well represented on the anuual 'Billionaires List' published by the FORBES magazine and elesewhere. Only someone naive and ignorant could possibly believe that annual reports on the OUTFLOW of tens of billions of Dollars, Euros, Pounds, etc. from Russia into Western banks and real estate, yachts and other high style 'attributes' did not involve high level Russian politicians.
Vlad Putin is not naive, he has been accompanied by his former KGB-trained 'associates' for all of his political career.
Dmitriev was very correct in stating that, although Russians find corruption “irritating”, they do not “see their own obvious self-interest in its liquidation.”

If you are still dreaming about expensive watches and luxury cars what you need to do is to join the ruling party of Russia, Putin's party.

Just one of many stories destined to be branded "the Golden Pretzel affair", refers to a bakery owner Yelena L. Nikolayeva, a member of the United Russia party, who has recently disclosed owning a Lexus and a Lamborghini. Now, can you beat that ?